Thuwed Backstory
' ' 'BACKSTORY: ' For longer than he cares to mention, Thuwed has been having night terrors. The most reoccurring of the nightmares are the ones of his childhood friend and lover, Aya. Thuwed was born into a small clan of Elves. The clan had no name. They were self-dependent, rarely seen by any outside civilization, and never stayed at one location for too long; to the Elves in the clan though it was simply called home. The Elves and Halflings in his clan were simple beings, respecting the natural order of the woodlands and living simple lives as hunters and gatherers. The clan had a rather loosely structured hierarchy consisting of a clan leader, a few designated mothers, some mages, and the rest consisting of hunters and gatherers. The clan numbered no more than 100 individuals. The clan leader’s word was law. Any major decision was left up to her and the rest of the clan would have to obey it without question. Being a relatively small clan, most of the major decisions consisted of when and where the clan should set up camp and when they should pack up to move to a different location in the woods. Traditionally the leader is the eldest designated mother. A designated mother is a female who showed a great promise for the magic arts at a young age, they did not have to be a parent to be a designated mother. Instead of being trained to hunt and gather food, the mothers would be taught magic focusing on healing magic. A designated mothers’ main job in the clan is to look after the Elves in the village that are too young or sick to take care of themselves. The male Elves that showed a great promise for magical talent were trained to be simple mages. The mages were the closest thing that the clan had to guards. They trained in magic which focused on manipulating the elements around them. They would often be used to start the camp fires, use their magic to help with tasks around the camp, as well as a last resort for summoning water for if there was a draught. The rest of the Elves, the ones who showed little skill with learning magic, were trained to hunt from a young age. Learning skills such as trap making, marksmanship, and how to move great distances undetected. The hunters also gathered useful plants and herbs from the woods that the designated mothers would use in their potions. Overall the clan lived a simple life. - For as long as the clan’s record books took account for, blood magic was punishable by death. The records tell a tale of a powerful mage who used the life energy of his entire clan to try to become a god. Back then however, the clan was much larger. The mage tried to turn the entire town they were living in into one powerful magic amplifying stone. The infrastructure of the entire town was used to enhance the ritual. The mage almost succeeded, a great majority of the citizens disappeared into the stone. The magic backfired causing the enchanted stone to explode, killing the mage and many of the Elves who were lucky enough to not be stolen into the stone. Since then the clan outlawed blood magic. The clan leaders would mention that blood magic used to be practiced as a way to amplify magical skills in times of dire need, but also mentions that it is too tempting and can corrupt even the best of intentions. The record book is an account of hardships that the clan went through since the great destruction 400 years ago. The tale of the great destruction was only one of many stories that the clan leader would read to the young in the clan during story time. There were stories of how the surviving clan members managed to survive afterword, stories about how a clan leader once almost died due to eating some poisonous berries accidently. In truth, the record book was as much a book about the clan’s history as much as it was a book on basic survival. Most of the clan’s history wasn’t written down. A great majority of the history was passed down from the elders to the young during the night stories. Night stories were the main form of entertainment for the clan at night. The clan would sit beside the camp fire and listen as one of the elders in the town would recall something from their childhood. Usually stories of hunting escapades were shared. Many of the stories doubled as lessons. The stories were limited however, and the nights were long and plentiful. - Thuwed and his sister, Muinith, grew up as the children of two magical Elves. His father, Acharnion, being the most powerful mage the tribe has seen in generations and his mother, Haerediel, being a relatively young designated mother who had a natural talent for healing magic. His parents had an amazing work habit when it came to the study of magic. Haerediel was as skilled at healing as those double her age. Muinith was only two years older than Thuwed. She excelled in the magic arts at a very young age. Before she could even walk, Muinith used her magic to grab a toy that was out of reach for her. Magic seemed to be the family’s pride. Unlike his parents and sister however, it seemed like he has no natural talent for magic. So as is the tradition in his clan he was trained to be a hunter. Excelling with his training faster than most of the Elves, it would seem that Thuwed was as much of a natural at hunting as his family was with magic. He was hoping that he would make his parents proud with this fact but in his parent’s eyes magic was the only true way to gain pride. His talents however did catch the eye of the young designated mother Aya. Thuwed and Aya have been friends for as long as he could remember. When he was young, he went out to train his short blade skills on a tree decently far away from his camp. Well, there was this one occasion when the tree struck back. Thuwed was practicing a simple swing when a branch higher up snapped off of the tree whacking Thuwed unconscious. Aya was doing an errand for one of the designated mothers when she saw Thuwed get hit by the branch. She ran to him and tended to his wounds. When Thuwed came to he was not bleeding, but he did have a small scar on the side of his face and a larger scar on his pride. Before Thuwed could say anything, Aya said “I saw the monster that attacked you, thank the gods we scared it away.” This was the first time Thuwed and Aya met. Ever since then they were close friends. A few years have passed since the “monster” attack. Thuwed became a skilled hunter and Aya became a gifted designated mother, always healing the wounds that Thuwed would get when jumping around from tree to tree hunting. Thuwed wasn’t sure if he would get injured on accident or if it were some elaborate ploy to spend more time with Aya. Whatever the situation was with all of the ‘accidental’ bumps and cuts, it was assumed that Thuwed and Aya were going to be promised to each other once they came of age. Muinith made a habit of traveling deep into the woods where she could practice her magic without the prying eyes of the rest of her clan. She wasn’t afraid of her clan finding out some secret that she had, she simply wanted privacy as she worked on her skills. She was always careful about where she practiced magic, made sure that there were no other settlements in the area, that there were no large animals that she might encounter, or anything of the sort. There was this one grim day where she was practicing that a slaver group found her. Muinith was skilled in many forms of magic, particularly good in both the healing and destructive arts. When the slavers attacked her she used her magic to fend off the first few waves of attacks. Thuwed happened to be hunting in the area and overheard the commotion. By the time Thuwed got to the area Muinith became restrained by a Hex placed on her. Two of the slavers didn’t even know that Thuwed was in the area before they each had an arrow through one of their vital organs. The slaver mage mumbled a curse, mounted a horse, and rode away. Thuwed grabbed his sister and carried hexed body back to camp. When he returned to camp with his sister still under the hex, he immediately handed her over to the mothers. Their mother, Haerediel, knew immediately the danger of the hex. The hex acted as a poison trap, making the Muinith both immobile and sucked her magical force from her as a fuel to keep the hex powerful. Basically, Muinith’s magical strength became the very thing that was killing her. Haerediel tried for hours to break the curse unsuccessfully. The mage who summoned the hex was powerful and that in combination with Muinith’s life force feeding it made the hex too powerful for anyone in the clan to break. The slaver mage was the only one in the area who could break the hex. Thuwed knew what he must do. He needed to hunt down the slaver camp, somehow capture the slaver mage alive, and convince him to break the curse. A plan easier said than done. He had a lot to work out but he just did not have the time to come up with a fool proof plan. He recruited a few of the clan’s best hunters, some of the mages, and went on a hunt. The slave group was easy enough to find. It looked like it was set up in a hurry, more than likely just a one night stop between where they were coming from and where they were going. They must have stumbled upon Muinith by chance. The camp had more slaves than they did slavers. The slavers were all human, but the slaves ranged from Human to Elf to Dragonborn. Thuwed came up with a quick plan. He told the mages to go to the outskirts of one end of the camp and use their fire magic to cause an explosion that would (hopefully) drag the attention of everyone in the area, and then disappear into the darkness. In the chaos of the explosion, the rest of the hunters would go to free the slaves from their shackles, hand them a weapon, and tell them to murder their slavers. This would cause the slaver mage to come out into a vulnerable situation where Thuwed could attempt to knock him out, or in some way disarm and capture him. When it came time to carry out the plan there were a few setbacks. One of the hunter elves was spotted before the mages could cause the explosion. This caused the hunters to be attacked by a scout party. When the mages used their magic to cause a distracting explosion, some of the wiser slavers realized that it was a trap and set the camp to high alert. The mages noticed this and used their magic to simply attack the camp. The explosions killed slavers and slaves alike. In the end, the hunters managed to kill most of the slavers, and free any of the surviving slaves. Thuwed managed to knock the slaver mage unconscious but in the act of picking him up he triggered a magical trap. In a fiery explosion Thuwed and the slaver mage were sent flying out of the tent. When Thuwed came to, the only thing that he could notice was the searing pain. His chest was burned up to the lower half of his neck. Aya was using her magic, herbal remedies, and anything else that she could think of to try to help with the pain. It helped—a little. The rest of the mages were able to get the slaver mage back to consciousness. The clan leader promised the slaver mage his life in return for Muinith’s life. She told him that he can leave on his own free will if he releases the hex. The slaver agreed to these terms. Getting up unsteadily, the slaver walked over to where Muinith was laying half-dead. He looks at her, looks up into the sky, lifts his hands high and laughs. He screams “Fools” as he summons a dagger into his hands and stabs Muinith, killing her. The energy flowing from her body into him was palpable. The force of the magic caused Muinith’s body to explode in a bloody mess, causing no real damage to anyone or anything around it. The magic had a distinct smell to it as he used it. The slaver mage teleported away, leaving nothing but the smell of death. The clan leader told everyone in the camp to pack up because they needed to leave the area as soon as possible. Thuwed ignored the clan leader’s orders and decided to hunt the mage in the hopes of getting revenge. Tracking an enemy who teleported is difficult to do. The clan leader, knowing that telling him to stop was pointless simply told him in the direction that they would travel. The distance that the enemy teleported is dependent on the skill of the mage. Thuwed knew that this mage was powerful on his own, but with the blood magic amplifying his skills, Thuwed had little hope in finding him. The only way to track him at first was going off of instincts, and following the stench of death that the magic reeked of. After a week in the wilderness alone Thuwed finally found a fresh trail of the mage. The mage might have had a head start in fleeing, but he was not nearly as skilled in navigating a forest as Thuwed was. It was not long after Thuwed found the trail that he found the mage. He knew that the mage was strong, and he knew that he was alone in his quest; a head on battle would surely result in his death. Thuwed noticed that the mage looked as if he was running in a straight line. Everybody has to sleep eventually. The mage laid down to rest no more than an hour after Thuwed noticed him. This gave Thuwed time to set up. When the mage woke up he continued on the path that he was on before. Walking in as straight of a line as the forest would allow. After a few steps the mage walked through a twig that snapped causing a branch to smack him sideways. The mage then landed into a secondary trap that he set up. This one was designed to snap as a hangman’s noose lifting the mage up by his neck, effectively lynching him. Unfortunately though the noose caught his foot and flung the mage upside down hanging by one of his feet, hanging about 18 inches from the ground. The force of the traps smacked the mage’s staff out of his hand and pulled his pants down to his ankles. Thuwed could work with this. Thuwed walks up to the half-naked mage slowly. “You know, this part of the forest has wolves this time of year.” He walks closer to the mage. “Do your worst, worm.” The mage says as he tries to swing for his staff. With a flick of his foot Thuwed kicks the staff safely over a cliff, ending with it landing on some rocks, snapping it. “This time of year particularly, the wolves are extra hungry. You see, now would be the time of year that the wolves would be migrating from the waste lands. They would send scouts out looking for food. Now wolves are pack animals, but usually a scout would eat part of the hunted animal itself before telling the rest of the pack about the feast. After all, a wolf wants to be part of the pack, but it also wants to be the strongest one in the pack. I’m thinking that a wolf will eventually come around and notice you.” Thuwed pulls out a knife. “Let’s give them some help.” He slices the mages nut sack open. The mage spits some curse words. Thuwed splashed him with some ‘medicated’ water. His clan called it “The Devil’s Piss”, whenever someone in the clan got injured bad enough to the point of shock the mothers knew that if the victim were to pass out the odds of saving them would go down, so they made this medicine. The Devil’s Piss was called that partially because of what it did and partly because of its smell. The medicine was designed to keep victims who were going into shock from passing out, it did that well. The unfortunate side effect of it played perfectly into Thuwed’s intentions. The Devil’s Piss amplified any sensation that was going through the person. Most of the time that main sensation was pain, so it saved their life at the cost of torturing them until they got better. For Thuwed, that was a win-win. After splashing the mage with the Devil’s Piss, he got his bearings as to where he was and set out to find his camp. No more than 2 hours after he left the mage he heard a blood curling scream from the direction that he was coming from, followed by some howling. Thuwed smirked and continued on his way. It was another two weeks before Thuwed came across one of the clan’s hunters. - His relationship with his parents was deteriorating. When he was young all Thuwed wanted to do was make his father proud, but as time went on it seemed as if his parents were either completely zoned out and exhausted, or super hyper. Thuwed was convinced that his parents turned to drugs after the death of his sister, but he never found any proof to that. Thuwed had always loved his parents but he began to resent them. This was one of the reasons why he spent so much time with Aya. His time with her was a well needed break away from his parents. The sun was not even completely raised on his 19th name day when Thuwed promised himself to her; she accepted immediately. Thuwed and Aya were promised to each other. It was expected that they would move out of their parents’ tents and into their own new tent. Traditionally the male and female elf would work together in making their tent, but Thuwed wanted to leave as soon as possible, so months before he proposed the promise he decided to make a tent in the hopes that she would accept. The tent he made was simple at best with no design to it. When he showed her the tent he had made for them she said that it was perfect and agreed to move out of her parents’ tent. For a time, they were happy. One year passed since the promising. Thuwed’s parents have become even more distant and he saw them less and less. Aya had a soft yet noticeable glow to her. She was pregnant. It was strange because Aya seemed to actually glow with a light that was only noticeable in the dark. Aya was strong in magic and her glow was assumed to be due to her natural magical abilities mixed with the fact that she is newly pregnant. - Thuwed was out hunting when it happened. He knew immediately when it started, anyone within 20 miles of his clan would have heard it; a massive explosion. He has no idea what it was but he knew it had to be bad news. Thuwed ran as fast as he could back to his clan when he finally saw what was happening. Blood splattered the area around the camp; no bodies. As Thuwed wandered around the ruins of his camp he is franticly looking for Aya or any survivors for that matter. His mother comes out from under some covers. “You’re alive?!?” His mother said doubtfully. “Yeah, I was out hunting. What happened? Where is everyone? Where is Aya?” Thuwed says frantically “There was another group of human slavers.” His mother explains. “They came in and attacked us, dragging some of us away. The rest of the clan is hiding in a cave that one of the scouts found a ways back. We should go meet up with them.” Thuwed asks helplessly, “Is Aya safe?” “Yes, for now.” his mother responds. “We must get moving.” As his mother leads him into the cave he is left wondering a few things. How did the slaver group find the camp without someone noticing? Is this the same slaver group as last time? Is this revenge for destroying their other camp? Why would the clan leader send out a designated mother to do a scouts work? These worries were completely overlooked as his worry about Aya’s safety is so huge he overlooks everything else… until he notices the distinct smell of death. *SMACK* His mother clubs him in the head knocking him out. Thuwed wakes up and sees Aya tending to his wounds. His clan is sectioned off in cages, the smell of death and decomposing bodies fill the area, blood stains scattered around the places that he could see. “This time I saw the monster that hit you, but unfortunately we couldn’t scare it away” says Aya. “What happened? The slavers! Kidnapped? W-Where are we?” Thuwed said confusingly Aya Stroked Thuwed’s face, slowly sliding her fingers over every scar that was left from the times he ‘accidently’ got hurt and ending with her fingers resting over his burn scars. “There was no attack from any slaver group. Your mother and father have been practicing blood magic. Apparently they have been using the animals of the woods for some time now. I caught them in the middle of a blood magic ritual. Haerediel must have known that they would be executed for what they have done, so she did the unthinkable. She sacrificed your father to obtain enough power to escape with her life. The power must have overwhelmed her and there was a massive explosion of pure magica. She must have liked the feeling because she decided to imprison our entire clan as sacrifices.” “What?!? No….” “It’s the truth” “We can’t let her get away with this” Thuwed vowed A month passes in the cells and Thuwed and Aya see that one by one the members of their clan disappear by the hands of his mother. Thuwed and Aya eat rats that he catches with a trap he sets up and she cooks it using some basic fire magic. The longer they are in the cages the more they can feel that Haerediel is growing more powerful. Now it is just Thuwed, Aya, and Haerediel left. Haerediel enters the room. “I’m almost there… almost have enough… the more anger, the more hatred a person has the more power I get from them… soon I will be powerful enough to bring them back. I’m going to make you watch as I kill your love.” His mother says with a grin. Before Thuwed could even mumble a threat the light fades around them. Thuwed wakes up dazed and confused. He notices that Aya is strapped to some circular table. His mother notices Thuwed waking up and grins as she looks at him. Thuwed tries to go to punch her, but he is stopped by the fact that his arms are chained to the wall. “I’m pleased that you’re going to witness this. Let this act be the driving force of your hatred. Feed the anger” his mother says manically as she goes to plunge a short dagger into Aya’s chest. A blinding flash of light that is released from Aya’s chest, followed by a violent force that pushes anything and everything near her away. The white glow in her protected her with everything that it is. Aya frantically runs to Thuwed to unlock his restraints. “What are you doing? Run!” Thuwed yells “I can’t just leave you here! I can’t live without you” she says as she continues to unlock him from the shackles. Just as the final shackle is unlocked Aya gets hit with a bolt of magical lightning. The lightning passes through both of them. The attack turns her into dust and leavs him mostly unharmed. Thuwed looks down into the dusty remains of his love and his unborn child. “... Why? How could you do this?” Haerediel looks over at him with a demented smile. “I did this for your sister. Blood magic is powerful, so powerful. With enough magic I can make life. I didn’t want to do it this way but I had no choice after she caught us. My daughter, my only true child was taken away by blood magic. Blood magic must be able to bring her back!” She proved herself to be utterly insane. The moments that follow are all just blurs of light in Thuwed’s memory. Making flashes of light making photographs in his mind; lightening blowing apart the walls around him, intense fireballs flying by his head singing his hair. The one image that he can never seem to get out of his head is of him taking the ritual dagger and stabbing through an electrical blast transferring the energy from the blade, his hand, and basically his entire body into Haerediel’s chest. Haerediel exploded in a magical lightning storm. The walls of the cave around him have collapsed in the middle of the fight. Thuwed found himself trapped in the belly of a deep cave with a source of great magical power that suddenly found itself greatly unstable. Time seemed to slow around him. He saw bolts of lightning shoot out of his mother; the lightning however was moving very slowly and kept on slowing down until it came to a complete stop. Then he saw a bright figure of Aya come and talk to him as time stood still around them. “She deserved death for what she has done.” She says in a two toned voice. “You have done everyone a great kindness by ending her existence. You must continue to take vengeance against those who deserve death. Do that, and you will always have me with you.” “I promise…” Thuwed vowed. Thuwed went to give Aya one last kiss. As he kissed her the light engulfed him, dragging him out of the cave, launching him far into the woods. The ball of light fades around him and he looks in the direction of where his entire life got flipped upside down. The mountain near the cave explodes in a quick electrical storm causing the ground around him to shake violently for a moment, leaving a creator where the cave used to be. Thuwed went back into his camp, grabbed some supplies, picked up the clan record book, wrote in the final entry and then picked a direction and walked. Category:Player character Category:Backstory Category:Thuwed